Courses for Gym Instructors

COURSE FOR PHYSICAL FITNESS AND HEALTH (GYM) INSTRUCTORS INCLUDING TRAINING FOR CHILDREN

Background

The course for gym instructors at the Zinman Academic College at Wingate trains instructors to work with adults and children in the gym. The course provides a basis for understanding human movement and the physical fitness components. The course instills instructional skills for use in the gym with an emphasis on preserving health and improving trainees’ functioning.

Course coordinator

Meron Rubinstein, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Holds a Master’s degree in Physical Education.

Course duration

287 hours. 105 hours in studies of the sports sciences, 154 hours theory of physical fitness and health, 28 hours First Aid, according to the Israel Sports Law.

Certification

Those completing the course receive a certificate as Instructor of Physical Fitness and Health (Gym) and Training Children

Medical clearance – physician’s certification of good health and fitness to engage in physical activity

Studies are held at the Zinman Academic College at Wingate and at 9 branches of the College around the country.

PHYSICAL FITNESS AND HEALTH AND THE ROLE OF THE INSTRUCTOR IN THE GYM

General physical fitness is defined as the ability of the heart, lungs, blood vessels and muscles to function properly in daily physical tasks, events and challenges with a minimum of fatigue and discomfort. Developing and maintaining physical fitness is an important part of maintaining quality of life today, as a basis for promoting and maintaining good health. Through physical training it is possible to affect the functioning of all the body systems and to channel functional ability to meet specific aims.

The basis for physical training lies in the ability of the body to adapt to environmental conditions with which it must deal, through processes of cell destruction and rebuilding. This adaptability is the basis for the training routine prepared by the gym instructor, which is intended to preserve and improve the trainee’s physical fitness, and to reduce the decline of the body in older age.

The role of the gym instructor is to build an effective training program based on the general principles of load and training and on the optimal relationship between training load and recovery afterwards, gradual loading, variation, individualization, continuity, periodicity, keeping in mind the principle of reversibility which means that physical fitness will decline after an extended break from training…

A resistance (power) training program built by the gym instructor will make it possible to preserve and improve the muscle’s ability to produce strength. This will help to stabilize and move body joints according to movement aims and to affect body composition, functioning and health.